LEXINGTON, Ky. – Sophomore Yuuka Kurosaki scored the match-winning goal in the 87th minute to push the Kentucky women’s soccer team to a season-opening 2-1 win over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on Friday night at the Bell Soccer Complex.

Kentucky struck first early in the match with a goal in the 12th minute from sophomore Hollie Olding – scoring her first-career goal. Centerback Payton Atkins played a ball to the left side of the pitch where Marissa Bosco was able to get past her defender wide and served the box for a beautiful finish by Olding.

UK would dominate the opening 45, outshooting the Cougars 7-1 in the half with five of those seven shots on target in the half.

To start the second half, SIUE equalized early, scoring from 35 yards out on a goal from Andrea Frerker.

Kentucky continued to push the gas petal hard in the second half, with more than a dozen scoring chances created by the dynamic UK attack. The Wildcats had penalty shouts in the later stages of the half that went unclaimed and Kentucky kept pressing for the winner.

Finally, after 13 shots and 10 on target, Kurosaki scored the game-winning goal with under three minutes remaining to seal up the three points for the Wildcats and send the Big Blue Nation crowd of over 1,500 home happy. The ball was misplayed by SIUE due to the Kentucky pressure, and Eva Mitchell was able to squeeze out of a double team and pass the ball to Kurosaki who was making a run towards goal for the easy finish after the goalkeeper was drawn out.

With the win, Kentucky improves to 1-0-0 on the season and wins its first season-opening match since 2015. The Wildcats’ freshman goalkeeper Hannah Leonard gets the win in goal – the first of her career.

UK will travel to Little Rock, Arkansas on Saturday in preparation for a 2 p.m. ET match on Sunday at UALR.

For the latest on the Kentucky women’s soccer team, follow @UKWomensSoccer on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com. 

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